HONG KONG, May 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 460,000 travelers arrived in Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland and elsewhere on Wednesday, the first day of the Labor Day "golden week" holiday, braving the rains.
Figures from the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government showed that among the 460,000 travelers who entered Hong Kong through various control points, around 180,000 were from the Chinese mainland.
Of the land crossings in Hong Kong, most travelers entered Hong Kong via the Lo Wu checkpoint, with over 162,000 arrivals, followed by the Lok Ma Chau spur line, the Hong Kong International Airport and the West Kowloon Station.
The department also noted that over 340,000 people traveled out of Hong Kong on Wednesday, with some 195,000 of them being Hong Kong residents.
Timothy Chui, the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Promotion Association, said the number of mainland visits to Hong Kong on the first day of the Labor Day holiday was basically the same as that of last year, though affected by the rainy weather.
The Hong Kong SAR government has provided a number of measures to facilitate transport and better scenic spot services to cope with the tide of holiday tourists, such as an increased frequency of MTR and buses, and the extended service hours of the MTR to the Lo Wu checkpoint. ■
